*Blames tragedy on corruption

The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, has blamed the stampede and death of over 20 Nigeria Immigration Service applicant last weekend on the scourge of corruption at all levels of government in the country. In a statement signed by the Chairman of Media Committe of the body, Alhaji Femi Abass, it stated that despite its continued call on government to nip the scourge in the bud, the monster continued unchecked.

He said: “The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) is once again nonplussed by last weekend’s tragedy occasioned by the unfortunate recruitment exercise organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on behalf of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) causing the sudden death of over 20 applicants.”

“The unwarranted precipitated tragedy has further confirmed that the root cause of the multi dimensional problems of the country is corruption.” “It is unbelievably amazing that the same youths who had been compelled to serve their fatherland through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) could be lured to premature death so cheaply in a country where employment ought to be a right rather than a privilege.”

“On many occasions in the recent and remote past, the NSCIA had called on the authorities at federal and state levels to work towards elimination of corruption in the land as a way of ventilating security and peace. But rather than doing this, the evil monster called corruption keeps rearing its ugly head as it spreads its tentacle to the detriment of the nation and the future of our youths through the evil machination of those who should be responsible for its elimination.”

“With or without any investigation, into the immediate and remote causes of that tragedy, it is apparent that corruption played a prominent role as usual. The real tragedy in this is not the incident alone but also in the inconsequential lip service that would be emotionally paid to it through the passing of buck while the families of the victims keep mourning in endless agony.

Such has happened again and again even as the nation groans painfully under the spell of the ruining phenomenon called corruption and there is no hope that it may end in a foreseeable future.” “As we mourn, some vital questions become pertinent to ask if the teeming jobless youths were charged N1000 each as form fee as reported in some quarters and if it was true that  the recruitment exercise had earlier been put on hold by the National Assembly on suspicion of irregularities?

Again, we would like to ask if it was true that over six million job seekers applied for less than five thousand vacancies out of which about half a million were shortlisted and invited for screening and if all the invited candidates were scheduled for screening on one and the same day without adequate security arrangement for their safety?

The statement further surmised that over 80% of the advertised vacancies had been secretly allotted to some influential Nigerians thereby leaving only 20% of about 5000 vacancies to over half a million applicants at the expense of merit.